Following on from my last anime musing piece I wrote before, I thought I’d pull together some small thoughts I had on a collection of Anime I watched in 2020.

Why 2020? In some ways, I’ve been on a semi hiatus and haven’t watched a lot of anime in a long time. Sure, there are a core few I watch, but I haven’t kept up with seasonal anime but have book-marked them to pick up at some point.

Here’s my small thoughts on 5 anime I recall watching in 2020:

Tate no Yūsha no Nariagari (The Rising of the Shield Hero)

The Isekai genre has grown a lot in recent years. I was looking for something a little more serious rather than comical and came across Tate no Yūsha no Nariagari (The Rising of the Shield Hero). I wasn't aware of the controversy surrounding in the past it, but really enjoyed it.

The plot was really interesting for me and the serious tone to things helped me enjoyed it more. The development of the characters was great too and how they changed and evolved over the series. For me how certain actions affected things around the Hero's was great to see too.

I also loved how Raphtalia was towards Naofumi. I really ship these two together. They both really care about each other. And Raphtalia really supported Naofumi when he really needed it. She was definitely the best girl! I'm so glad this anime got a season 2 & 3! And the new season is out soon.

 

Kanojo ga Flag o Oraretara (If Her Flag Breaks)

I don't know how to feel about Kanojo ga Flag o Oraretara (If Her Flag Breaks).

I went into it thinking it was a slice of life, comedy, harem anime.

What I got was something slightly different, with the Matrix and Inception included. I’d say it pretty interesting and unique, without giving away any spoilers; I say it’s worth taking a look at especially if you want your expectations to be turned on its head.

Toradora!

I’m sure this deserves a bigger write-up, and somewhere down the line I will probably get around to doing that. But for now I’ll jot down my thoughts here.

I didn't know how to feel going into Toradora! At first, I felt a bit apprehensive at watching the show as I wasn’t a fan of how Ryuuji was being treated nor how much of Tsundere Taiga was, but I stuck in there and the show really grew on me and I grew to love the characters.

The character development was amazing, especially towards the end with Taiga. I also liked Ami and how she developed, too. The romantic aspects are quite believable too.

I really wish there was a second season, after story ova kinda thing, but sadly there isn't.

I'd have to say the best girl for me was Taiga Aisaka. She went through a lot. And she went from being annoying to someone really loveable to me by the end.

I'll have to visit the expanded media in the future, including the visual novel.

Ano Natsu de Matteru (Waiting in the Summer)

Ano Natsu de Matteru (Waiting in the Summer) was another one I feel like it deserves a bigger write-up.

I found it to be a great anime. I really enjoyed the plot to it.

It felt quite nostalgic to me with the snapshot of adventures in the summer in the yester-year. Summer love, romance and heartache.

The romance felt very real and took time to develop, much like in reality.

I must be very sentimental and soft-hearted as the story left me in tears. I will say though, Ichika Takatsuki is definitely the best girl! Not only that, but I wished this show had got more episodes or at least a few more OVA's. I'll be picking up the manga to relive the summer.

Kokoro Connect/ Michi Random OVA

In 2020 after 8 years, I rewatched Kokoro Connect and the OVA Michi Random. It was an anime that left a lasting impression on me till this day, and from time to time I'd think about it. It's had the right mix of slice of life, the supernatural, comedy but at times made you think.

It was surprisingly psychological and made you think a lot, especially after the things they went through. Character development was great. It's kinda a shame it never had a second season. I've always wondered how it ended. I'll definitely pick up the LN to finish the story.

I also loved the romance in this.

Inaba Himeko was the best girl, and she actually got who she wanted in the end. It made me really happy. She was probably one of the ones that made me like this personality type.

After-thoughts

It's a small round up, but I’ll probably continue my small thought’s series again soon, so stay tuned.

The best place to probably start is what is the meaning of the phrase ‘falling’ down the rabbit hole? It all started when Alice chased a rabbit, literally fell down a rabbit hole, and found herself in the strange world of Wonderland in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Going by this bit from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, “Falling down the rabbit hole” was originally used to mean stumbling into a bizarre, disorienting alternate reality.
It is now also used to mean a person who becomes interested in something — fully immersed to a degree.

This was exactly what happen to me in 2020. During the later half of 2020 I was looking for some tutorials on how to use the open source application Krita when I came across a tutorial by Ninomae Ina’nis from Hololive EN.

 

All Holomyth/Hololive Characters and the distinctive likeness(es) there of are Trademarks & Copyright of Hololive Production and Cover Corp. Holomyth illustration by artist by Ninomae Ina’nis.

It was a strange to see what was an anime girl teaching me how to use the software but I was hooked from there. I started watching more of Ina’s video archives and watched her live streams and collabs and slowly learned more about Hololive, (including Hololive EN, Hololive ID) and got hooked on other streamers in those branches.

This eventually this spread to learning more Nijisanji another V-tuber organization via ZEA Cornelia an Indonesian V-tuber and member of Nijisanji ID. I ended up catching one of her chat streams by accident and got hooked from there as well and eventually found out about Lazulight the first wave of EN V-tubers from Nijisanji.

All Nijisanji Characters and the distinctive likeness(es) there of are Trademarks & Copyright of Nijisanji Production and ANYCOLOR, Inc. Original source of image Lazulight - Diamond City Lights official music video

The V-tubing trend

V-Tubers are online content creators using a virtual animated face in place of their own.
In the year 2020 during the pandemic when everyone was spending more time online than ever before, there was a boom in the popularity of V-tubers.

The idea of came about in the Japanese idol industry with the rise of Kizuna Ai, and there are a bunch of Japanese virtual idol industries like Nijisanji and Hololive, with the latter being one of the most famous ones on a global scale.

Both Hololive and Nijisanji idols have each formed and gained a fandom rivalling some of the other most intense modern artists. Most of these talents end up becoming popular because of their interactions with the fandom, through memes, skits, gaming, chatting and other stuff rather than what you think might be singing (they do all try to record their own original song though and do the odd cover).

Every idol has their own niche and appeal to a certain audience.

But what's the appeal?

I’ve never been into live streamers, and the whole watching real people play games on Twitch and YouTube has never appealed to me.

But why did V-tubers appeal to me?

It's hard to describe, really. For me, I suppose it’s the interaction and the fact there is someone real behind that anime avatar.

In the case of Ina in hololive, she is actually a priestess of the Ancient Ones. After picking up a strange book and then started to gain the power of controlling tentacles. But behind that avatar she is a normal person using some phone cameras to project an anime girl persona and staying in character, but the real her had similar interests to me such as art and video games that I like. She also comes across has quite a comfy streamer.

I think, personally, the content of the streams alone aren’t what keep me coming back. If that were the case, I would’ve been able to get into regular streamers (real people) long ago.

I think it's because of the fantasy world, being able to interact with an anime character unlike when you watch anime itself there is no connection.

The lore of the characters of these V-tubers portray and the universe they live in, but also the real life stories you get mixed in with their anime personas. The sense of camaraderie and interplay between the members is also what makes their streams seem more like an over-arching narrative rather than just isolated individuals.

Positive aura

I had a couple of rough years and during 2020 having the pandemic on to of everything certainly did kick me whilst I was down.

Despite having friends in my life that I could chat and interact with returning to work after a long absence, trying to maintain work, earning money and getting my life back together was a really hard thing to do.

A lot of things I enjoyed I didn’t have time to do any more, whereas in the past I would have watched a lot of anime, it was not something I could do now, work left me very tired, I couldn’t binge-watch things like I used too, my hobbies like reading, art and gaming sat an on the wayside whilst I had to struggle to re-coup my lost energy.

Watching V-tubers is pretty much pick up and play I guess in this sense, you get to remain in a world our familiar with (anime) but you also get to watch streams that are plain fun and sometimes silly, you can enjoy the reactions, the games that they play but the silliness and the stories.

It helps to get my mind off things, and you don’t have to worry much about storylines and plots, which sometimes when you are just too tired It's hard to follow.

Other side effects have also included me dusting off my art skills again. I long set down my pencil, so to speak, but Ina’s drawing streams have been incredibly useful and helped me to bring this hobby out of retirement. Sure I’m not going to be a great artist like everyone else on the internet, but the important thing is I enjoy it and can learn new things.

And that’s the main thing.

Since I fell down the Hololive and Nijisanji rabbit hole I’ve felt a bit more energized, happy and can get my way through my day. It's certainly a welcome reprieve to my life and helps me to avoid reality sometimes.

Is there anyone you would recommend?

This is a hard one, I think there is someone for everyone in the V-tuber universe.
Take a look at Hololive and Nijisanji, but don’t just restrict yourself to these fan bases, check out other V-Tuber groups and indie V-tubers too.

For me, though, I guess it's mainly dependent on my free time and timezone.

I currently watch from HoloEN: Ninomae Ina'nis and Takanashi Kiara as they stream when I finish work. But saying that, I do check in on the other HoloEN streamers when my free time lines up.
 

From HoloID: Probably all from HoloID but mainly Ayunda Risu, Kureiji Ollie, Pavolia Reine, Airani lofifteen, Moona Hoshinova and Anya Melfissa (I have them on sometimes whilst I’m working though for Anya it's more her late night streams that happen to be my evening time).

From Nijisanji in the first wave ID (3SetBBQ) it's ZEA Cornelia who streams in my afternoons and  Lazulight is Pomu Rainpuff though she tends to stream much later when I’m fast asleep, but there are occasions when the stream time lines up.
 

Give V-tubers a try, there might be someone you like.

With a new year upon me, I felt I need a bit of change.

2019, 2020 and 2021 were pretty tough years for me. Though things are getting better, I feel I need to break things up a bit and make this cycle a little different for me.
I’ve never been one for New Year's resolutions, but why is that?

1. I don’t think they work. They are wishes or dreams that are either too generic or don’t have a realistic action that is achievable.
2. There is no target due date when the goal needs to be achieved by. Quite often the goal to achieve something as now set date which means you could spend the whole year on it or just the last month to achieve.
   

Despite those thoughts I listed above I did have certain goals I did try to meet in 2021, and I would say I did achieve some of them in some capacity which of course I didn’t write about last time.

For 2022 however, after being inspired by my Oshi (推し) (well multiple Oshi’s) in this case I decided to put together a list of New Year’s Resolutions which were a lot more achievable and realistic.

It’s a new year, and a new opportunity to start a fresh and in a world that is very messed up at the moment I think we should try anything and everything as life is too short.

So here are my New Year’s resolutions for 2022.

...

1. Write more – Many years ago I used to write a lot, I wrote many articles for a corporate blog and made huge achievements. My articles were highly rated, got lots of traffic and were also shared in the larger community and republished by a large organization. However, times change, work changed, and I had less time to do that, both in a professional sense and a personal sense. This year, I hope to write more and publish a few things online more regularly.
2. Write stories – Outside of writing articles, when I was younger I wrote stories. What I would really like to do in 2022 is to write more stories. Or at least flesh out character profiles to add in an interconnected story.
3. Do art/Practice art – It was one of the things that got me through a particular dark point in my life, too, but it slowly fell on the back burner again. 2021 was a real turning point as my Oshi really inspired me to get back into it, and over the course of 2022 I’d like to set time aside to draw more.
4. Go out for a walk/go out – Something I’ve been guilty of over 2021 is staying in a lot. I think because of how messed up the world is at the moment and a poor immune system, I haven’t really gone out much. Though I went out when I needed to, I’d like to make it more regular, especially for exercise.
5. Read more – I used to read a lot of books when I was younger and had a library membership. Now I hardly have time to visit the library or read books. I’d like to make time to do that this year and expand my horizons whether it be books, visual novels, Manga, comics and more.
6. Learn something new – I’d like to learn a new skill, something I haven’t done before.

Reading these and looking back at my first two points, you might think they are generic and not measurable, but I think that’s where it comes down to you. In my case, I can achieve all of these, I just need to set the time aside and a target on either a monthly or weekly basis. 

Let's see how it goes, and I’ll revisit these at the end of the year.

Like a lot of people, I do have plans and ideas and even New Year resolutions for what I’d like to do in 2022, but I thought it would be a good opportunity with 2021 now behind us and 2022 upon us to sit down and reflect on a few things.

This time I take a look at some of the games I completed in 2021.

If I’m honest, the list is pretty small. I would dearly love to dedicate as much time as I did when I was younger to this hobby, but it's hard to find the time between being an adult, making a living and keeping on top of my health. The irony is when you are a kid, you normally don’t have the budget to get so many games.

I still found it enjoyable, and hopefully I’ll be able to chip away and my massive collection the next year too. So here’s a run down of what games I played and completed in 2021.

Halo 5 Guardians (Xbox One)

Halo 5: Guardians was launched in 2015 and is the well known first-person shooter video game franchise developed by Bungie and now 343 Industries and published by Microsoft Studios.

The game's plot follows two fire teams of human super soldiers: Blue Team, led by Master Chief, and Fire team Osiris, led by Spartan Locke and contained various multiplayer modes and the ability to customize your Spartan.

Funnily enough, this was a game I started way back when I first got my Xbox One but never got around to completing. I was playing this with a very good friend of mine, who in the past also completed the campaign mode of the previous Halo games with together.

2020 was the year we dusted off our Spartan armour and grabbed our guns and finally saw this game through to the end. Was it worth it? I'd say yes and no.

Completing a game was great, and I got to finally see the ending in all its glory, but at the same time it felt a little anti-climatic, especially with Halo 4 wrapping everything up in a nice kinda way the story here felt a little too open-ended.

Halo Infinite is out now, but I'm waiting till it gets the co-op multiplayer before I touch it.

Gears of War 4 (Xbox One)

Gears of War 4 is a third-person shooter video game developed by The Coalition and published by Microsoft Studios for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One in 2016. It is the fourth main instalment in the Gears of War series, and the first entry not to be developed by Epic Games.

Like with Halo this was a game I started long ago and only recently got around to completing.

I’ve played the previous versions of the GOW (Gears of War) franchise with my Halo brother in arms and completed them with him. It was the same for Gears of War 4.

Much like Halo 5 the game play was amazing, and the story was great, and it was nice to see different faces, but I felt something was missing from this game. I suspect it was again because it was the start of a new series, so the story didn’t wrap up much, and it also felt a little anti-climatic and open-ended.

Saying that though, I have the sequel GOW 5, so it's something I’ll begin working my way through, and hopefully I can see how it matches up with GOW 4.

Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (Xbox One)

Tom Clancy's The Division 2 launched in 2019 is a little different from the other games here since it's an online-only action role-playing video game developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft.

It is basically a game as a service where it's online only and updated regularly, much like the Destiny and Warframe game franchises. You could also call it a pseudo MMO RPG.

This was the sequel to Tom Clancy's The Division (2016), and was set in a near-future Washington, D.C. in the aftermath of a genetically engineered virus known as "Green Poison" being released, and follows an agent of the Strategic Homeland Division as they try to rebuild the city.

I very much was a big fan of the first game and played it very thoroughly, trying to complete as much as possible from the story/lore. I enjoyed this game and basically played solo. The story was pretty fun, and getting to customize your agent is always fun too. I would say it felt very different, as the first game perfectly captured the atmosphere of winter quite well, but the change of location and weather did make the game feel a little too different for me.

It was kinda fitting to have played this and completed it in 2021 considering the ongoing situation around the world, it feels there are some parallels.

Apparently there is a new game in the series ‘Tom Clancy’s The Division: Heartlands’ but I'm not sure how I feel about the free to play nature of it. We will have to wait and see.

Crackdown 3 (Xbox One)

Crackdown 3 is an action-adventure video game launched in 2019 and developed by Sumo Digital and published by Microsoft Studios for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One. It continues the series nine years after the release Crackdown 2 (Xbox 360).

This game is pretty much a sandbox game, think GTA (Grand Theft Auto) but where you play the good guys/police/agents and have superpowers which you can enhance by going around collecting orbs that upgrade your superpowers. You can also enhance your shooting by shooting, driving by driving and pulling off cool stunts and strength through hand-to-hand combat.

I absolutely love this game as I played the first and the second game years back on the Xbox 360 and later on had to get my fix from Saints Row 4 (which borrowed ideas from this franchise).

Much of the online reviews for this pan the game, but I enjoyed it.

This game ended up being a strange mix of myself and my GOW/Halo gaming brother completing it as the game allows for you to do co-op game play.

State of Decay 2 (Xbox One)

State of Decay 2 is a survival video game launched in 2018 and developed by Undead Labs and published by Xbox Game Studios. This game was a follow-up to State of Decay, a game I never played previously. This game much like the predecessor required players to build a community, manage resources and survive against the horde of zombies.

It was definitely fun to play, finding survivors, doing missions, helping out other communities to survive the zombie horde. I found the managing a community fun, though it was very different from what I had in mind. I was thinking about a game where you could build yourself and survive the zombie horde along or with others. In the end it was different from what I wanted but nonetheless enjoyable.

This too ended up being a game I played with my brother in arms as it comes with a good co-op mode, though sadly you can only progress one map/save file via visiting each other's worlds rather than having a shared one. Maybe a creation mode and shared world would be something for a future State of Decay?

Remnants from the Ashes (PC)

On the verge of 2021 ending Remnant: From the Ashes was the last game I completed with previously mentioned brother in arms.

Remnant: From the Ashes is an action role-playing third-person shooter developed by Gunfire Games and published by Perfect World Entertainment. It was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2019 and recently for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S in 2021.

Unlike the previously mentioned games, Remnant: From the Ashes was a PC game rather than an Xbox game that I completed.

It borrows its mechanics from franchises such as the Souls series and combines melee combat, third-person shooter elements and allows you can wield up to two gun weapons, one main weapon and one side arm, alongside their melee weapon.

The plot is pretty interesting and takes you on a pretty wild adventure. It’s a mix of Souls and Diablo and you can find some good gear and depending on how you fight bosses you can get different sort of weapons or gears.

Every map is different too so if you play with a friend their world and maps are different too so more opportunity for more gear and more maps and bosses.

Final thoughts

Looking back, it seems like a lot of the games on that list were co-op games I completed, except for the Division 2. Hopefully in 2022 I might have more time for this hobby, but even if not I’ll squeeze in bits and pieces whilst I can alongside life and my hobbies. Maybe I’ll have a slightly different list which isn’t made up of 1st or 3rd person shooters for the end of 2022.

Here’s to gaming a bit more in 2022.